


The Rise of Unity

by KingOfCringe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: F/M, Knights Radiant (Stormlight Archive), Pre-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars - Freeform, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series References
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27237724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingOfCringe/pseuds/KingOfCringe
Summary: Two years after her arrest for murder and treason Alani Stargazer, the once adored daughter of New Apsolon's fallen hero, is hated and despised by everyone. Set to be imprisoned for life Alani has little reason to think her life is anything but over. But a message from her late father awakens something within her, oaths that will change the fate of the Galaxy forever.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. This is my first time posting to Ao3. I started this story on a whim, and I think it's going pretty well so far. If you don't know the main character was a minor villain from an arc in the old Jedi Apprentice series about a young Obi-Wan training under Qui-Gon. I wanted to continue her story, but also do something interesting with it. So I decided to crossover Sugebinding powers from the Stormlight Archive into it, because why not? Hopefully, it'll be fun.

Even Alani had to admit she was nervous. Standing off to the side of the temporary stage set up for her latest political rally, hearing the roar of the crowd of supporters that had shown up for her. Alani had to admit, her nerves fired panic through her. Adrenaline surged through her body, making her shake ever so slightly. It was an odd feeling.

But it was only her nerves. Only her body. Alani knew. She was in control. There was nothing to worry about.

She loved the spotlight. Always did, ever since Alani was little. People adoring her with attention and praise. People showing her with beaming smiles. The way they looked to her and her alone. It was invigorating.

Eritha never understood. Alani’s twin was always quieter and reserved. More calculating. And - much to Alani’s annoyance and eternal frustration - far more intelligent. Eritha’s mind worked like a surgeon’s knife, it peeled back and struck at the heart of any issue. And it was powered by an endless drive. And insatiable ambition. That last part was one thing they had in common

Eritha’s mind and Alani’s drive for the spotlight couldn’t wait for them to grow up. They were both only sixteen, but they figured that was old enough for power. Any longer and the memory of their father might fade Eritha had said on the day she introduced her plan. A plan to make them, make Alani, the Supreme Governor of New Apsolon. Her plan was flawless, as far as Alani could tell.

It had been so easy to fool the Jedi, Tahl, to New Apsolon and lure her into their plan. Even the complication of the arrival of Qui-Gon and his Padawan had worked out in the end for both of them.

_ “The hardest part is going to be faking our grief for the old bastard.”  _ Eritha had said. Killing Roan had also been easy. A simple matter of faking a kidnapping and luring their adopted father into the clutches of their associate. Who actually did the deed.

_ Was that part of the plan necessary?  _ Alani thought.  _ Was killing the man who kindly took in me and my sister after our father’s assassination truly the best course of action? In any case, Eritha was right about that. Displaying grief for his death had been easy. Too easy really. It wasn’t all fake. _

It was a private doubt, a small seed that was still present and which constantly festered at the back of Alani’s mind. Some remnant of her conscience that refused to die with her father. Alani knew she shouldn’t have doubts, and would never share such thoughts with Eritha herself, but they were there. And they wouldn’t go away. Annoyingly.

But enough with all of that. This was going to be a great day. The election was very soon and Alani looked like she was going to win. With the backing of the Workers and the secret alliance with the Absolutes, such a thing was a near certainty. 

This current rally was little more than a victory lap all things be told. At this very moment Eritha and their associate - Balog - were taking care of the Jedi and tying up all the loose ends. They were about to win. All Alani and Eritha’s efforts were about to bear sweet, victorious, fruit.

It didn’t matter what it took to get power. Only that you were around and able to enjoy it. Or so Eritha said. Alani was more than willing to follow her lead, so long as the spotlight forever remained shining in her face.

Finally, she could hear the announcer getting through the rest of his speech. The - in Alani’s opinion - boring preshow to her hour. The crowd seemed to like it though, and they were cheering enthusiastically. The energy of the sheer mass of unity wiped away the last of Alani’s nerves.

It was time to drive home the spike.

“And without further adieu, it is my great honour to present for your candidate Alani Stargazer.”

Alani could see the man step away from the podium, making way for her entrance. Without any hesitation, Alani glided forward to take his place. Her dark blue dress flowing behind her. Her blonde hair perfectly braided over one shoulder. This was the young lady that had attracted so many admirers over the years. The heir of the great Ewane, hero of the Workers. 

The crowd’s cheers grew ten times louder as Alani took the podium. She turned her gaze to greet the sea of smiling and howling faces that greeted her. They surrounded the forty glass columns, still projecting their white and ice blue light, that dotted the square her rally occupied. Alani couldn’t even see the commemorative plaque in the centre of the square, it was too swallowed up by the crowd.

She waved, a tsunami waved back. Workers and Civilized both gathered here to attend this final gathering at the site of her father’s greatest victory and greatest shame. 

Alani had picked the site of her rally well. A thousand eyes were on her, filling her with their passion. Alani, in turn, projected her own upon them. Her smile projecting serenity and grace far into the beautiful daylit blue sky of New Apsolon. 

Even though she was in the poor Worker district of the city, Alani couldn’t help but silently marvel at the sight of all those people. All those supporters.

_ Is this enough for you Father?  _ Alani spitefully thought, willing her message to reach her father in the void of death.  _ Is this enough for you to finally notice us? Notice me?  _ It was in pure irony that Alani thought that though. Was she and Eritha planned to do would systematically ruin their father’s legacy once and for all. The Absolutes would be given back the keys to their former glory, under the thumb of Eritha and Alani, naturally. Perhaps then he’d pay them any mind.

No matter. The great Ewane didn’t matter today. Today the crowd’s mind was solely on Alani. And Alani alone. Not her father. Not Roan. Not Eritha. Her.

Just the way Alani liked it.

“Workers - Civilized. Fellow citizens of New Apsolon. I stand here before you humbled by your presence and grateful for your support.” Alani begins, playing off the fact that both groups were present and supported her in droves. The crowd immediately silenced the moment she began her speech. All eyes on her. All ears on her.

“Though our great planet is in crisis, I don’t come before you today to stoke fears or take advantage of the current chaos,” That was Eritha’s job “I instead once again cry out for justice. Justice for Roan. Justice for the many Apsolutes that still evade it. And justice for my father.” That last part gets them riled up again. Ewane had been very popular when he was alive. So much so that even the Civilized elements of the crowd were whipped up alongside the Workers.

“This plea has gone unanswered long enough. Roan was slain tragically trying to deliver it to you, and his death will not be in vain. The list of hidden Absolute agents, hidden from you, will be released to the public so that the people will, at last, know their enemies,” A lie of course. Roan did try to get the thing released, but he was taken care of before he could. Eritha should now be in possession of the list now. Soon it would be destroyed, its loss blamed on the reckless actions of some radical Worker activists, paving the way for Absolutist restoration in the shadows. 

The crowd, however, dranks up Alani’s words like so much nectar.  _ These people are fools,  _ Alani thought.  _ I just have to tell them what they want to hear and they become putty in my hands. Pathetic really.  _

“The decommissioned buildings that have long deadlocked the United Legislator will be replaced,” Alani paused to make sure her point got through, this was something she actually did plan on doing, “by new top of the line Worker housing. No longer will you live in squalor staring at the fine palaces of the Citizens.”

Alani continued on like this through her major campaign promises. Half of which she planned to keep, and only a quarter she planned to enact in full. Alani was sure many people, many there in that very crowd today, would turn on her and try and see her put in her place come the next election. Eritha would see to them, she would make sure dissent was no longer an issue. The so-called bloodless revolution that had toppled the last government would not be repeated with the ascension of Alani.

“In short, I plan to build what my father always dreamed of. A world where Workers and Civilized can live and breathe together. United and in harmony. At peace with and amongst each other.” Alani was bringing it home, winding down to her perfect finish when she noticed a small commotion in the crowd. A small group of people wading through the sea of people in a wedge-like formation towards the stage.

The crowd eventually made way for them, the sea parting before them. It was then Alani realized who they were, New Apsolonian Security. The Cops.

A thousand thoughts, none of them pleasant, fired through Alani’s mind. They couldn’t be for her right? Eritha had covered their tracks so thoroughly that even the Jedi had to be told of Alani’s involvement by Eritha herself. 

No. That couldn’t be it. They must be here for someone else. Perhaps an Absolutist agent in the crowd, there were bound to be dozens of them in attendance that day. Any of which could come under their radar in any number of ways.

Her nerves, buried by the attention of the crowd, returned in full as the Cops made straight for Alani through the crowd. Not pausing. Not stopping, exempt to step around someone in their way.

“What is the meaning of this interruption?” Alani asks angrily, breaking from the flow of her speech. The spell the crowd was in seemingly broken as their gaze was ripped from her to the Cops now in their midst

It was a moment before Alani realized her mic had been cut off, and the crowd could no longer hear her speak to them. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Alani was paralyzed, frozen in place unable to make herself run, as the Cops strode up to and lept upon the stage. Their leader, an older-looking Worker man with hard eyes, steps towards Alani briskly as the others surround her cutting off any escape.

“Alani Stargazer,” the man says. His voice full of iron, his eyes boring into her. The fire of a man betrayed blazing in them. “You are under arrest for the murder of Roan Orden, the murder of Master Tahl Adis, conspiracy to subvert Democracy, and treason against the Government of New Apsolon.”

Alani can’t escape his gaze. The eyes of the crowd return to her, she can’t look back. For the first time in her life, Alani didn’t want to be in front of a crowd. Another cop steps up close behind her and stiffly grabs her arm.

“Put your hands behind your back. Now,” he says sternly. His voice betraying a hint of disbelief as well. Alani complies instantly with his order and puts her hands behind her back where the officer slaps a pair of binders on them.

_ No...this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening….  _ Alani thought in anguish.  _ Eritha’s plan was supposed to be perfect. No one was supposed to find out… _ The officers led her off the stage and through the crowd. They had to almost force Alani forward as she weakly slumped down in defeat. The crowd’s gaze, something she craved only moments earlier, now glared at her with confusion and betrayal. Alani kept her head down and only looked at the ground.

_ This can’t be happening...this can’t be happening.  _ Where her final thoughts as Alani was roughly shoved in the back of a Security speeder and taken away to her fate.


	2. Chapter 1

Life.

That was the sentence Alani had received in the end. Life in prison. Forever. __

_ It could have been a lot worse,  _ Alani thought. Balog had been given the death penalty for his part in their crimes. It had been a number of factors that contributed to the mercy that had been granted to Alani and her sister. 

For one, they were still minors at the time despite everything. It was against the law to execute children, no matter how wicked they were 

The second factor was one that still annoyed Alani. Despite working with the Absolutes. Despite murdering Roan. The people of New Apsolon still viewed her and Eritha as the daughters of their great hero.

Her father had just as big a part to play in saving Alani as her age. It was - vexing - to say the least.

Alani could still remember the judge handing out the sentence. An older Civilized man, hair so gray it had turned white as snow, sternly speaking the words that had damned her.

“ _ Miss Stargazer,”  _ he had said in a raspy deep voice. To her alone, for all three of them had separate trials,  _ “given an utter lack of remorse and your stubborn lack of cooperation with the authorities I have little leave to grant mercy to you.”  _ Alani had winced at that. Eritha had advised her not to say anything and - as usual - she had complied.

_ “However. Given your age, it is by the law of the land on New Apsolon that this court is forbidden to give the sentence of death to you on account of your youth. Or a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release. Therefore this court gives you the maximum sentence possible. That being life in prison with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years. May the Wills have mercy on your soul. This court is adjourned.” _

The gavel had come down, but Alani didn’t hear it. She didn’t hear anything as she was led away from the courtroom in shackles. All Alani took with her was her shame.

She didn’t want to go to prison. But there was no denying that, in some way, she had deserved it. Absent father or not. 

It had been two years since that day and Alani was now eighteen. By New Apsolonian standards she was now an adult. However, the court had granted her and her sister leave to remain incarcerated in separate Juvenile facilities in the capital until they were twenty-five. 

After which they would be transferred to an adult prison, where they would spend the rest of their lives.

Alani was grateful for that other small mercy as she looked around her cell. All prisoners here had their own, no cellmates. Unlike the inhumane pits the Absolutes used to use before the Revolution, the cell Alani had been staying in for the past two years was wide and tall. It was far smaller than even her old closet in Roan’s house, but it was still far more than she could have hoped for.

Dappled light, coming in from a barred window outside in the hallway, washed the white walls of her cell. Obstructed only by the bars of the cell door. The sky outside, Alani could see, way gray with clouds. Gray as her mood. She didn’t care, she had been like that for a long time now.

Where once Alani was adored by millions. Where once she wore only the best and most fashionable dresses and outfits, now she was hated by everyone and she wore only prison orange.

So no. There was not much to be happy about these days. The small seed of doubt in her mind had grown. Grown into - well Alani didn’t exactly know yet, she was still too busy trying to ignore the gnawing feeling that perpetuated her entire being.

To accept it would be to accept that she had been wrong. And she couldn’t do that. Not yet at least.

At last, Alani got up from her laying down position on her cot and she took a peek outside her cell door. A few guards walked by at that very moment. They sped past her cell, barely wanting to even look at her. Alani was fine with that. At least they weren’t harassing or beating her. Alani was content to be ignored, for the moment at least. 

Alani got up from her bed, still slightly groggy from waking up that morning, and began her daily exercise routine. At some point in the last two years Alani had concluded that simply sitting in her cell all day, something that most prisoners did in her facility, was not something she wanted to do. 

Sleeping everything away would not be enough. Alani hated sleeping these days anyway. Her nights were plagued by strange nightmares and she kept seeing shadows move along the walls, almost forming a face in the black.

But Alani felt the want.The  _ need.  _ T _ o _ do  _ something  _ with herself. Anything to help take her mind off her aching conscience. 

She started with her stretches. Alani had learned the hard way not to start doing exercises right away. A day of dreadfully sore mussels was all it took to stop making that mistake, she flinches at the memory.

Legs first, she moves into the splits as far as her prison bottoms let her, which wasn’t far all things considered. But it was good enough. Arms next. This she could go further on and she let the pain of the stretch last longer than she really should have. Then Alani stretched to touch her toes, letting the internal tension within her peacefully seep out back into the world. When she first started doing this she could only get the tip of her middle finger to her big toe. Now she could touch all five fingers to the ground without much effort.

After a minute of holding that position, she straightens up again and reaches for the ceiling. Her blonde hair bounced with the movement, no longer restrained in a braid. Braids weren’t allowed in prison.

Alani wasn’t sure she even liked them anymore. Once braids defined her style. But having gone two years without them she found that she liked her hair down and free. Sure it was annoying the way it got in her face some of the time, but the constant tugging feeling of the braid was gone. And for that, she was eternally grateful.

Now that Alani was done stretching she began doing her exercises, beginning with pushups. They were simple yet effective. And they required a surprising amount of concentration to get them right. Perfect for Alani’s needs. 

She could do fifty - in what Alani judged was perfect form - in a row without tiring out much. A far cry from the measly ten she had started out with. But she had not even gone through her first twenty when she was interpreted by a large human-shaped shadow appearing over her and breaking her concentration.

Alani looked up to see several guards standing outside her cell. They sternly looked down at her through the bars. Without them even saying a word Alani stood up to attention, more than a little fear coursing through her mind.

_ What could they want? It isn’t cell inspection time,  _ she wonders.

“You have a visitor, Stargazer. Come on you know the drill. Hands through the hole.” Alani moved to comply, putting her hands through a rectangular window in the bars to allow the guards to cuff her. 

_ A visitor? Who would want to see me? _ She thought as her cell door opened allowing the guards to take her through the hallway to her answer.

*******

Alani is led through the grey corridors deeper into the prison, away from the cell blocks. As their group passes by row upon row of occupied cells the prisoners within glare at their charge. Despite being a juvenile facility, it was still maximum security, and therefore housed the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists, gangbangers, they all stared at Alani in disdain. Her case was known by everyone on New Apsolon and no attempt at concealing her identity had ever been made. Everyone knew who she was and what she did. 

To make it worse most of these criminals were Workers, the class Alani betrayed by siding with the hated Absolutes. So as a hundred eyes bored into her, Alani shied away. She closed her eyes allowing the guards to guide her. 

For the tense few minutes she spent walking through the prison Alani wished a hole would open up in the ground and that she could hop right inside it and hide. She once adored the crowd, but not like this.

Eventually, Alani is taken to a large gray door. Odd, it isn’t the place visitors usually came to, she knew that much from her prison orientation. Alani began to shiver a little in panic.  _ Just who wanted to see me exactly?  _ She wondered in a haze.

The guards open the door and Alani is lightly pushed inside. The room beyond is grey and poorly lit with a large durosteel table bolted to the floor dominating the space. At one end of the table is a chair of the same material, also bolted to the floor. It takes mere seconds for Alani to realize this is an interrogation room. 

And then Alani sees him.

At the other end of the table is a man she hadn’t seen in two years. Not since the day of her arrest at her final political rally. He looked much the same as he did then. An older man with graying receding hair and hard steely dark eyes. Alani’s arresting officer, Gar Herron. He was now New Apsolon’s new Chief Security Controller. And he didn’t look happy to see her at all.

“Sit,” he says simply. His voice not dulled in the least with time. The confidence and authority contained in it rang through Alani’s soul.

But it was the eyes that made Alani obey instantly. By the force, those eyes. They were like a pair of black holes that threatened to suck up the universe if you strayed from their gaze. Alani sat.

“I bet you’re wondering why I’m here,” he pauses to make sure his assumption was correct, when Alani nods he continues, “You’re eighteen now. Which means that your father’s estate legally becomes yours, and your sisters. Roan was supposed to be the executor of Ewane’s will,” his glare somehow became more intense. Alani shudders slightly in shame, “but we both know how that turned out.” He takes a moment to calm himself for a moment before he continues.

“In his place, his brother Manex was appointed to do the deed. But he understandably doesn’t want to be within a hundred clicks of you or your sister. So he sent me in his place.”

His silence signals Alani to respond, but for a long moment, she was speechless and unable to do so.

“I take it we won’t be getting any money I suppose,” Alani finally says quietly, at last breaking from Gar’s gaze. She stares at the metallic silver of the table instead, still painfully aware of the Controller’s gaze on her. For the second time that day, she wanted the ground to open up so she could hide.

“You’re damn right you’re not. No. The Government will keep your father’s fortune in a blind trust until such a time comes that you’re released,” he spits out that last word, “neither you nor Eritha will be seeing that money for a very long time, if ever. But I am supposed to give you this,” he says briskly, setting a metallic grey cube with a very short snout-like cylinder coming out of one side on the table. A Holoprojector Alani realizes quickly.

“A Holoprojector? What’s on it?”

“A message from your father in the event he was dead before your eighteenth birthday. I don’t know what it says, but the United Legislator already approved both you and Eritha to have a copy. You’re allowed to keep it.” 

Alani reaches for it cautiously, Gar has to slide it across the table for her to reach the device, her hands are still bound. She takes the metallic cube into her hands and studies it intensely.  _ What could my father possibly have to say to me?  _ She thinks. What could he say to her in death that he couldn’t in life?

“That’ll be all today Alani Stargazer, I hope to never see you again.” 

With that Gar calls in the guards and Alani is left wondering what the message could say as they take her back to her cell.

*******

It was two whole two weeks before Alani built up enough courage to watch what Ewane had left her. Was it a mixture of shame and post mortem hatred that stayed her from watching the Holo? Alani didn’t know. 

It was on the day of a storm that Alani finally relented. The thunder roared outside and rain clattered against the window like an ancient slugthrower fired against armies in ages past. Her cell was darkened by the black clouds that hung outside. It felt natural to look into the past on such a day.

Alani soberly took the cube from underneath her cot. Her finger hung over the activation button for a few moments. Was she really ready to face him? After all, he had done? After all,  _ she  _ had done? Only one way to find out. 

Alani pressed the button lightly and the projector spilled out its blue light into the air before her. The image of Ewane, her father, formed there. As regal as when Alani last saw him over three years ago. A wave of a thousand emotions flows through her. A tear falls from her face. She almost turns the device off, overwhelmed by everything, but before she can he begins to speak.

“Eritha, Alani. My beloved daughters,” he said quietly, “if you’re seeing this it means I was...unable to tell you this myself.” He looks down as if overcome by emotion himself, Alani had never seen him like that. He recomposes himself and looks forward again.

“Hear my words, and know that I am sorry.”


	3. Chapter 2

“Hear my words, and know that I am sorry.”

The words hung in the air, pressing against Alani’s soul, adding to the mountain of emotion that she felt weighing her down. She paused the recording again, taking in the first words she has heard her father say in years. This was the man who Alani had hardly ever seen in her childhood. This was the man who cared more about his cause than his own daughters and had left them in the care of his political allies.

_ You had fourteen years to say that to me and Eritha. But you choose now after your death to apologize?  _ Alani thought. The disdain she had felt for her father since his death was still present in full.

But the words ignited sorrow in Alani all the same. For all of his shortcomings, for all of his absence throughout her life, Ewane Stargazer was still her father. Tears flowed freely down her face for a minute before she regained her composure. Alani breathed several more times to calm herself down. 

Now, with her hands shaking, Alani pressed the play button to allow the holorecording to continue. Ewane’s image burst to life and began speaking once more.

“I know...that I haven’t always been there for you two. No, scratch that, I have hardly been there at all for either of you.” His expression and demeanour wore pain like a glove. His eyes were turned to the floor like he knew he couldn’t meet his daughter’s future gaze.

“And now that you’re seeing this I know that I failed you. Here I make no excuses, and I will say nothing to absolve myself of the hatred you both must feel for me. But I hope my words can at least be an explanation. For everything.” Ewane said, now more composed and upright. The pain was still there, but now there was force behind it. 

Alani was unsure if she was fully willing to hear him out. But whatever pain her father had caused her and Eritha, Alani had caused others a thousandfold. Besides, she surmised, she had come this far. Alani might as well let the man speak for himself.

He had paused for a second seeming to gather his thoughts before continuing on. “When I was your age...,” he forced himself to continue, “my mother was arrested by the Absolutes. She had done nothing more than make an offhand comment about the Supreme Governor in front of one of their hidden agents. It wasn’t even something illegal. But that didn’t matter to them. One day they came and took her. I never saw her again.” His gaze was set back towards the floor. Not out of shame this time, but out of the memory of his loss. Alani was shocked by the story, she had never been told.

“I found out years later that she had been tortured to death in one of those blasted sensory deprivation chambers. By then I had already resolved to end their rule. I was angry. I was young, and I was hurt. I wanted them to hurt the way I did.” Alani shutters, the pain, the motivation...it hit a little too close to home.

“Thankfully, before I had the chance to do something stupid, your mother came along. And you two shortly afterwards. Eritha my angel, and Alani my star,” tears, something Alani had never seen her father shed while he was alive, fell down his face. After a moment he was in control of himself again, “It was then I knew that if I was going to enact change on Apsolon, that I couldn’t take a life doing so. I couldn’t bear a world where you both grew up under the thumb of tyrants. But one where I became the very thing I hated...would be much worse. Life is more important.”

Alani paused the recording once again. Shame like she had never felt before coursed through her psyche.  _ We...I, really have failed.  _ She thought in distress.  _ I became the thing he hated...the thing that killed my own grandmother. I was complicit in someone being tortured to death in one of those things myself.  _ She thinks of Tahl, the Jedi Master Balog had put in a sensory deprivation device, the very Jedi that had saved her and Eritha and protected them years before.  _ By the force...what have I done?  _ Alani thought before forcing herself to press play again. Ewane continues.

“I had to be strong in the face of their adversity. But I also had to keep the both of you safe from harm. I know this won’t make up for the years I spent away, locked up or picketing against the Absolutes. But trust me when I say I did it all for you. So that you could breathe free under a government that cared about you. I was going to try explaining this to you sooner, but clearly that...never happened. Take this as a lesson from me then, if you’re still willing to listen. Don’t wait. If there is something that needs doing and you know you must be the one to do it, don’t wait for the years to pass you by. I’m sorry I didn’t realize this until too late. I hope one day you two can forgive me...for all I’ve done.”

The recording ends. Silence reigns in Alani’s cell for several minutes. The rain against the outside hall window fell louder and more intense. Alani delicately placed the holorecourder back in its place under her cot, which she then plopped herself on. Alani is broken. Broken by a man who was long gone and that he thought she hated. But, it seemed, she was both more like him than Alani ever thought possible, and less like him than she ever dreamed. 

Alani accepted, finally, that she was wrong. Wrong about her father and wrong about her chosen path. Eritha had said the only thing their father left them was his name, and in many ways that was true. But he also left them a world which would have loved them and did love them, before their betrayal. Squandering the main goal of their father’s efforts, to help his daughters, was something Alani could never forgive herself for. 

“I’m so sorry father….I’m so sorry. I had no idea,” Alani said in a whisper to the man above. Perhaps he was watching, ashamed at what his angel and his star had become. What they had done to spite him. She couldn’t even bring herself to cry.

There was no way Alani was going to complete her workout routine now. Mentally exhausted beyond her capability to cope, she decided to simply lay down. And think. 

***

The storm raged on harder than before outside. Night had come and Alani’s cell was black in the darkness. She couldn’t sleep. Every time she tried to close her eyes the nightmares came again. Visions of the past, her actions, but from the point of view of others.

She saw Master Tahl locked in that sensory deprivation chamber slowly slipping away from life one agonizing hour at a time. She saw the enraged face of Qui-Gon, come to avenge his friend. His anger dripped off him like so unlike the creed he swore to follow. 

But most often of all, Alani saw through Roan’s eyes. She felt his shock, his sadness, and his horror as he realized the children he took in, the children of his best friend, had lured him to his death. The feeling sickened Alani to her core. For so long she tried to bury her feelings about his murder deep within herself, hoping that after enough time they would go away and be forgotten. But her father’s message awakened them tenfold.

Alani could no longer pretend to be on a righteous crusade against the memory of a father that didn’t love her. Eritha had manipulated her into betraying his memory to the point she actually participated in the killing of two people who only sought to protect and care for them. 

Lightning flashed outside again, the thunder sounding so close that it must have struck right outside the prison. Alani quietly thrashed on her cot, trying to get comfortable. But she couldn’t. The pressure, the pain, the shame she was feeling. It was too much for her. It was only then that Alani was glad she was separated from Eritha, she probably would have slapped her sister for convincing her to go along with her ridiculous plan.

And it was ridiculous, Alani could clearly see now. They both had been beloved by the entire planet. All they would have had to do to gain power the right way was wait. Sooner or later Roan would have retired or been voted out of office, leaving the field wide open for either of them to take his place.  _ But we weren’t patient. We couldn’t wait our turn,  _ Alani thought. She opened her eyes, surrendering to her inability to sleep. 

She sat up and reached under her cot to look at the recording again. This time on silent, so as to not wake anyone else up. Alani reads the lips of her father to experience his message again. She watched it over and over again, the storm raging evermore strongly. The howl of the wind can be heard now and the rain batters against the window so quickly there hardly seems to be a pause between each tap of each drop.

But Alani doesn’t notice that, nor the shadows creeping and forming around her. Alani can’t peel her eyes from the recording, it is the only connection she has with her father now. The only glimpse into the world she had from before her arrest.

But more than that, Ewane’s words got to her and Alani thought them over as she replays the recording.

_ Though his methods were more than questionable in the end, he really did want to protect me and Eritha from any harm his actions caused. And not only that, the way he conducted his revolution was in a way specifically designed to minimize casualties on both sides. People did die...but it would have been a lot worse if he did it the way me and Eritha did, with plots and assassinations. He really did value life. And I must value life as well if I am to honour him.  _

_ “ _ Life before death,” Alani says quietly to herself. The shadows ripple around her. The Storm calms ever so slightly.

_ And I know the Absolutes,  _ Alani ponders,  _ They would try, and probably did try, to do anything and everything in their power to discredit, undermine, and destroy my father’s movement against them. Yet father never backed down and he held true to his principles...he ended up dying for them. If only I was like that. If only I had an actual reason for taking power, instead of only doing it for the sake of doing so. I’m weak. _

“Strength before weakness,” she continues. The shadows form into a shape, a face, behind Alani. But she was too deep in thought to notice even then. She was too deep in concentration. The storm continued to pass, the wind’s howl can no longer be heard through the window outside, the rain still pounds against it but it began to weaken.

_ But...if there was one thing my father failed at, it was not taking into account how his actions could affect me and my sister. Nor could he really. How could he have possibly known that his actions would result in us resenting him so much that we sided with his enemies?  _

She turned the holoprojector off and placed it back under the bed. She sat against the wall, bringing her knees into her chest  _ I’m sorry dad _ , she thought again,  _ I’m so sorry. I was so focused on getting somewhere that I didn’t care how I did it. I guess we kind of have that in common. But not anymore. If I ever get out of here I will follow your advice, I won’t wait. And next time, I’ll do it the right way. _

“Journey before destination,” she finally utters. The rain stopped, and then the face in the dark, the shadow on the wall, spoke with a voice that pierced through Alani’s very soul entering the fractures within.

“ **THESE WORDS ARE ACCEPTED.”**


End file.
